In August of the third year of Chongzhen, the Bairentan Iron and Steel Plant, the musket workshop and the gunpowder workshop of the Bairentan Arsenal entered the stage of experimental production, the main project of the Bofu Shipyard was completed more than half, and the production of Lingao Textile Factory was in full swing, bringing rolling profits and pumping blood for the growth of this industrial system. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In September, Bairentan Iron and Steel Plant independently refined a furnace of low-carbon steel in accordance with the production manual.

In the same month, the gunpowder workshop of the Bairentan Arsenal prepared black powder that met the requirements.

In October, the musket workshop of Bairentan Arsenal successfully trial-produced the first batch of ten flintlock guns, thanks to the application of hydraulic lathes, the improvement of drilling efficiency, the speed and quality of making guns are much higher than those of the Ming army.

When Xia Nan learned that the first batch of guns were successfully made, the first thing he did was to pull Lin Weiye to test the guns. At the back of the musket workshop, an open space was opened for the purpose of testing guns. Under the guidance of Lin Weiye, Xia Nan poured an appropriate amount of gunpowder into the barrel, then put the lead in, and then pressed the bullet and gunpowder tightly with a strip, and poured a little gunpowder into the ignition device, and the firing preparations were completed.

The barrel has a simple illuminator and a front sight, which are welded at a later stage, and are also unusually smooth. According to Xia Nan's memories during military training at the university, he formed a line at three points and aimed at the target - a humanoid wooden target fifty meters away, which was the same as the life-size target. Hold your breath, pull the trigger, boom, smoke, recoiled in the summer, obediently, this is much bigger than the movement of the August 1st bar during military training.

I couldn't wait to go up and see the target, the marksmanship was not bad, and I hit the target, the 2-centimeter-thick plank was pierced by lead bullets, and an irregular hole was formed, the size of a fist.

Lin Weiye explained that the shooting effect of the smoothbore gun is different from that of modern rifles, the initial velocity and penetration are far less than the latter, but the soft lead bullet stopping effect is particularly obvious, shot on the human body, the lead bullet does not penetrate the human body like a modern rifle bullet, but will deform and roll, causing a large area of wounds, lead can also cause poisoning, aside from the range and accuracy, only in terms of lethality, the smoothbore gun is more destructive than the modern rifle - in this time and space, being shot by lead bullets, basically not saved.

Satisfied with the power of the gun, Xia Nan asked Lin Weiye: "How many meters is the effective range?" ”

Lin Weiye said: "The specific data will not be known until after the test, but the blueprint of this gun - the effective range of brown beisi is about 100 meters, the hit rate can reach 50%, and the maximum range is nearly 300 meters, which is still lethal, but the accuracy is not guaranteed."

Although he was mentally prepared for the performance of the smoothbore gun, Xia Nan was still a little disappointed, "The effective range is so close?" You can see each other's faces clearly for 100 meters! ”

Lin Weiye smiled and said: "How far do you think the smoothbore guns of this era can hit?" The key reason for the short effective range is the poor accuracy of shooting, which can only be compensated for by a large salvo at close range. ”

He explained that before the advent of the mature rifled gun, European armies fired in a line formation within 100 meters, and this method of warfare was the famous "line up shooting", and the British army even braved the rain of bullets to march to a distance of 50 or even 30 meters from the enemy before firing the first shot, and often a salvo was enough to collapse the opponent.

Xia Nan asked puzzledly: "It's like an idiot to line up to shoot, why don't the army in this period shoot from lying down, so that you can dodge bullets?" ”

"Nobody wants to be an idiot. You recall the whole process of shooting just now, and imagine that you can still shoot when you lie down? ”

After recalling and comparing it, Xia Nan suddenly realized that several steps such as charging, plugging bullets, and pressing through the strip must be done with the muzzle facing up and the barrel erected, and it is impossible to load after lying down. Fortunately, the opponents he will face in the future, whether they are homeless or Houjin, are not firearms, and they do not have to endure the rain of bullets.

"And if you shoot at such a close distance, the opponent will charge, and you won't have time to get up, you will be a live target for cold weapons." Lim added.

Xia Nan nodded, existence is reasonable, and it seems that the stupid queue shooting tactics have been used for more than a century, so naturally he has a reason.

Pointing to the first batch of test products, Lin Weiye said: "Comrade capitalist, let's inspect the goods, what are your thoughts after use, you can mention it, and the user's suggestions are the best way for us to improve the product." ”

Xia Nan carefully inspected this batch of guns, combined with the experience of test firing, and seriously put forward three suggestions:

First, can the launch process be simplified? Specifically, how much gunpowder needs to be poured into a single launch can be quantified, so as not to overdose or underdose in wartime - too much will lead to the early scrapping of the barrel, too little will be less powerful;

Secondly, the bayonet must be equipped as soon as possible. In the future, the training of the troops can be carried out simultaneously with live ammunition and assassination training, so that the musketeers can have both long-range strike and close defense capabilities, and avoid becoming a waste like the Ming army's musketeers - the enemy will open fire indiscriminately before they get close, and the enemy will be slaughtered lambs when they approach;

Third, the implementation of standardized production. So that the parts can be interchangeable and easy to repair, so that each gun will not be a disposable product, which can not only save costs, but also improve the durability of the firearm, there is a clear difference in the current batch of guns, and the parts are obviously not interchangeable.

Sure enough, the user's experience can better promote the improvement of product quality! Lin Weiye sighed. For these three suggestions, he gave solutions one by one:

The first problem can be achieved with a paper shell fixed ammunition, where the gunpowder and lead bullets required for a launch are wrapped in a paper shell, and the paper shell bullet can be directly bitten open by the mouth before launching, and the paper shell bullet can be stuffed into the barrel as a whole;

The second question takes time. Although the guns were made, the difficulty of equipping the bayonet was no less than that of the gun itself - the bayonet had to have good strength and toughness to ensure that it would not break and deform in the fierce fighting, and the wrought iron under the present was obviously not suitable for making bayonets;

The third problem can be realized, although there is no modern precision gauge instrument, but after determining the standard of weights and measures, a simple through-stop gauge can be initially standardized, which is enough for the accuracy of the smoothbore gun.

In November of the third year of Chongzhen, with the efforts of Xia Nan and Lin Weiye, one grasped management and the other grasped production, and the Bairentan Iron and Steel Plant and the Gun Factory initially realized planned management. The craftsmen of the two factories are divided into three grades, and the wages are divided into monthly bonuses and annual bonuses, which are linked to the output and grade. The grade is assessed once every six months, and once at the end of each year, the survival of the fittest. If there is a quality defect in the production, it will be investigated according to the production process.

After the implementation of the whole system, everyone's sense of competition is unprecedentedly strong, the original framework between the master and the apprentice has been broken, everyone wants to be promoted, get more wages, the annual income gap between skilled craftsmen and the lowest level of apprentices is fifty or sixty taels, ordinary people may not be able to save this money for several years.

The competition mechanism and the quality control system showed its initial power, and in just a few months, these craftsmen and apprentices were trained to look like modern workers, and the quality of the steel and guns produced was significantly better than in the early days. With a successful example, Xia Nan decided to build the Bofu Shipyard and all the factories in the future.